One of the causes of World War 1 was when a person got assassinated. Once this happened, the events just kept on snowballing. They just kept getting worse and worse resulting in a world war. This was similar to the battle in the hobbit because they both were over little unimportant things. Like in the hobbit, they fought over treasure. Then in World War 1 they fought over just one death. So both wars/battles were fought over silly things. They could have been easily avoided. Lastly I think that the fake war ended up better. It was on a much smaller scale of people dying and not as bloody. So it was much better than World War 1.

A) Based on The Hobbit I believe that Tolkien is a complete believer in nationalism. He shows this very strongly in the part of the hobbit where bilbo gives the Arkenstone to the opposing side and then goes back to his friends (his country) proving his strong belief in nationalism. Tolkien is trying to show that he thinks that the war is a gory devastating sight to lay eyes on. Also that it was a very important war as he shows by making it the climax of the story. The devastating sight was shown through the book by him making and somewhat exaggerating the amount of gore involved in any war and therefore showing his hatred to the blood shed and the lives lost in this history changing war.

If you were to read The Hobbit (specifically the chapter called "The Battle of the Five Armies") and you know a lot about World War 1, you can see slight similarities between certain groups. The Goblins and Worgs have some similarities to the German and Austrian armies. The way they started a fight before needed and such. America could correlate to the eagles because they charge into battle after it had started and troubles had come down upon the armies fighting for good. The French, Russian, and the United Kingdoms could be represented as the Elves, Lakemen, and Dwarves. Such similarities can easily be looked over, but they do exsist.

After reading, "The Hobbit", I think Tolkien's attitude towards nationalism is very strong. I think that the statement he is trying to get across is that war isn't always the right thing to do, but in desperate times, you have to do what needs to be done.

a) Based on The Hobbit, I think that Tolkien's attitude towards nationalism is positive and that he believes that it should be done. This is because he portrays Bilbo as very loyal and wanting to be helpful in his group with the dwarves (like his country). Bilbo also believes in what is right so that's why he also gave up the Arkenstone to the other side because that would be the noble thing to do. He remains loyal to his friends even when they wrong him and although he kind of betrayed Thorin by given away the stone, it was for goodness, and Thorin wasn't being reasonable with the treasure anyway. Bilbo just wanted to help a friend in need. In addition, the battle in the end of the book is very gory and many lives were lost, so I think that Tolkein wanted to show us how a little misunderstanding can end up starting a huge fight and that war, no matter what, isn't the solution to problems. I think that after Tolkein's experiences, he then realizes that war is devastating and overall scary so he puts this, whether he knows it or not, into his writing. Lives are lost and lots of sorrow comes along with it. Violence doesn't solve the problems fairly or reasonablely. His description of the battle makes the statement he feels about war in general to show us readers.

c) What were the causes of World War I? How are those similar or different from the causes of The Battle of the Five Armies? Did the real war or the imaginary one end up better? How so?

World War I was caused by the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria-Hungary in Sarajevo. The assasin Gunned him on June 28, 1914 and was apart of a terrorist organization in Serbia. It was believed by Austria-Hungry that Serbia's government was behind the assassination. This is the main cause of World War I.

The cause of the fictional war "War of Five Armies" was simply gold. That is all it was. the five different armies just wated to get all the priceless jewellry, jewells and gold from inside Lonely Mountain. This war only lasted one day where as World War I lasted 4 days.

The fictional war was better because it only lasted 1 day and not as many people got killed.

I think that Tolkien viewed nationalism as a very important idea. In the his book "The Hobbit" he portrays the dwarves as very loyal to their nation and people. In this way he shows that without nationalism there would be no loyalty and therfore many more wars between people in the same country. He seems to want to state that without naitonalism war would be inevitable.

c) What were the causes of World War I? How are those similar or different from the causes of The Battle of the Five Armies? Did the real war or the imaginary one end up better? How so?

The causes of World War 1 was the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria-Hungary in Sarajevo. The assassin was a part of a terrorist group in Serbia, so Austria-Hungary thought the Serbian government was behind the assassination. Austria-Hungary declared a war on Serbia and to settle bad blood between them.

The Battle of the Five Armies was caused by the dispute of the gold in The Lonely Mountain. Of course, it's different from the cause of World War 1. They weren't fighting about gold in a mountain, but it started with an argument like it did in The Hobbit. It's similar, but not exactly the same.

In my opinion, I feel that the imaginary war turned out than the real war. First off, this war only lasted for one day. How long did World War 1 go on for? Four years. Also, the imaginary world ended up like all fairy tales do; with a happily ever after ending. We still had a second World War after the first one, unlike The Hobbit.

c) The causes of World War I were the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand, the rise of nationalism, the build-up of military might, competition for colonies, and a system of military alliances. The Battle of the Five Armies was caused by the goblins and wolves coming to settle their defeat by the dwarves and a want for gold for the dwarves, Lakemen, and elves. Both are about competition and alliances. The imaginary war ended up better because the Lakemen, elves, and dwarves all made friends and shared the gold, while the goblins and wolves were taken care of and didn't give trouble for awhile.